Utah Mormon jailed in Venezuela begs for help inside prison taken over by inmates

A Mormon missionary from Utah held prisoner in Venezuela for the last two years begged for his freedom, claiming in a pair of videos shared to social media that an inmate revolt has put his life at risk.

"The people have taken the entire prison. They're outside. They're trying to break in. They're saying they want to kill me, they're saying they want me as their guarantee," Joshua Holt says in one clip, recorded inside Caracas' El Helicoide, or the Helix prison.

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The 26-year-old American traveled to Venezuela in 2016 to marry a fellow Mormon he met online, according to NBC.

He was arrested following the wedding after local authorities alleged he was stockpiling weapons in his wife's family's apartment.

Joshua Holt posted a video to Facebook claiming that an inmate riot is endangering his life. (Facebook)

Holt and his family have repeatedly denied the allegations, but he has remained behind bars without trial. The State Department has also called the weapons charges against the Utah man "questionable."

"Help me please the united states, how long do I have to suffer unjustly in this place?" he wrote on Facebook. "They want to kill me and paint the walls with myblood. I am political prisoner and they won't let me free. They won't give me a true trial."

It's unclear how he was able to record the videos nor how he accessed the internet from the center for high-profile prisoners.

Inmates at the facility in separate clips posted online this week announced they'd taken over the detention center in Helicoide — the headquarters of Bolivarian National Intelligence Service or SEBIN — for torture and human rights violations.

The footage appears to show prisoners walking freely about the facility while others break locks and demand their release.

The United States Embassy said it was "very worried about the mutiny in Helicoide," adding that Holt and other Americans "are in danger."

Officers guard headquarters where Joshua Holt is being held in Caracas, Venezuela. (Fernando Llano/AP)

"The Venezuelan government is directly responsible for its security and we will hold it responsible if something happens to them," the Embassy warned in a tweet.

The prison takeover comes just days before Venezuela's presidential election, which expected to be handed to current President Nicolas Maduro despite the staggering economic crisis there.

President Trump and his administration have previously blasted the election, threatening oil sanctions should it turn out in Maduro's favor.

Javier Bertucci (l.) has water thrown at him by relatives of prisoners. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images)

"The sebin has told me that as long as my government continues attacking this government and as long as Marco Rubio continues to talking about me the longer they will never let me go," Holt wrote on Facebook Wednesday.